The Lies That Bind
by Dark and Chaotic
Summary: 1st person PoV, OC centric. A single mom joins Miko, Raf and Jack in their escapades with Team Prime. Contains slice of life, fluff, mature stuff, minor OC characters, Miko being Miko, competent MECH, Gladiator starring Russel Crow every friday because even single moms need eye candy and lets not forget Awesome!Decepticons, Starscream included.
1. Chapter 1

One

 _A Truth and The Truth_

It takes exactly two minutes and thirty-two seconds to get from the teacher's room to my car. By the time I come home, I spend, on average, between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on the traffic. Well, more often than not there was barely any traffic. Jasper, Nevada was probably one of the most boring and desolate places in all of the States and while at times that irked me to no end, more often than not I found the lack of anything to be liberating. It meant that I didn't have to worry about too many things distracting me while going on with my day to day life.

Jasper, Nevada was simple to keep track of. It was something that I did with almost everything that landed in my sights. And, so far, Jasper fell under the label of safe. No. Not safe. _Safe._ With a capital S. There are very few things in my life that had ever been in that category. For myself, the definition of _Safe_ , begins and ends with the sole fact that it will not hurt me. Right away or in the long run. At least, that used to be the definition up until a year and a half ago when I had to patch my own head cannon of things. The maintenance of my servers took about 9 months and when they went live again _Safe_ had become anything that would not and could not hurt my son.

Jasper is a small town in the middle of nowhere. Well, small by American standards. I've seen settlements as little as barely a single road with a few houses on both sides in the wild depths of northern Scottland. Cosy villas with forests and pastures surrounding them on all sides as far as the eyes could see. I considered moving to Scottland to raise my son there but the weather wasn't exactly ideal for a newborn, not to mention schooling and medical facilities were difficult to accquire. Also it would be too close for comfort. I wanted my personal demons to be out of sight and out of mind. As far away as possible.

To be honest, Jasper wasn't ideal either. Nevada was the driest state in the United States. It is made up of mostly deserts and semiarid regions. In summer the temperatures rise up to fifty-two degrees Celsius and, I kid you not, it was just such a blistering heat that my son was born in. It was a twelve-hour long, complicated birth that I'd rather not go into detail about. Suffice to say, it was both the most terrifying and wonderful day in my life and the doctors managed to patch me up enough to hold my son for a little while before I simply slumped into blissful tired oblivion and came to some three days later to a cheerful pale MILF that oddly reminded me of my best friend MJ, all pale skin, blue eyes and black hair. She was one of the nurses in the hospital.

I remember freaking out at the sight of her, obviously having mistook her for MJ. Oh, God. MJ. She was probably sick with worry about me, but I just couldn't face her right now. Logically, I knew she'd offer me the support I needed. Hell. She'd probably take the first flight from London to Vegas. Well, London-New York-Vegas. She'd help me raise my kid, nice and _Safe_ _,_ and away from the bad things that still haunt me before I go to sleep. It was a tempting idea. Also a dangerous one. Just one phone call away from making this easier. So far, nothing had been easy. Nobody wants a single mother with a newborn baby to work for them. I'd had enough time to think about my options once I got to a sufficiently far away in the middle of nowhere kind of place. I was faced with a little, tight-knit community where new things didn't happen very often and everybody was a tenacious gossiper with the eyes of an eagle and the ears of a fox. Well. Maybe not short, with unruly red beard, an axe and on a probably doomed quest with eight other fools to throw a piece of jewelry into a volcano. I laugh out loud at the mental image. I'd bet it'd be hilarious to have a whole bunch of Tolkien Dwarves as neighbours. They'd probably make far better and loyal neighbours and friends than the ones I currently have (MJ and a few others not withstanding).

But back at the topic at hand. I saw the MILF nurse lady, I freaked out to the point where I couldn't breathe to scream bloody murder. I turned over my breakfast, something had been pulling on my arm so I ripped off the I.V. I thrashed about in terror as the poor MILF nurse lady was trying to calm me down.

Yeah. I think it's pretty easy to tell I don't do well with hospitals. It's an old psychological trauma that has me freak out when I wake up in new, unfamiliar places with people I don't know milling about me. Add to that the nightmares my over-emotional and very hormonal psyche would produce and I had been bound to have some sort of mental break down at some point. See, this is what happens when you ditch your small, four year old child, ONLY child, in a hospital full of people said child doesn't even know (including that new and expensive premium nany). To this day I am terrified of needles and white rooms. Surgical masks send the hairs on the back of my neck on end and I have the urge to punch, bite and kick anything and anyone in proximity. I have a very mean right hook and I have used it in any such occasion. More often than not I over-react but I prefer to be _Safe_ than sorry and it is always exhilirating when your very own knuckle sandwich becomes a weapon of divine retribution for the sake of all those single working mothers out there that may or may not have been harassed. I literally take no chances and assume that the guilty party is ALWAYS the guilty party. Makes for a great way to meet new people, not to mention the stories you'd have to tell your friends over a beer or five. Ah, those were the days.

Before things went ape shit, I had a tolerable life. I had great friends and, despite the fact I was barely in speaking terms with my own parents, I was a cheerful, happy little genius that always looked for the next exciting adventure. To this day, that spark within me had yet to die out, even though just a mere year and a half ago it nearly extinguished. I had- have good friends. People that I'd die for and do anything for them. Right now, however, I had to prove to myself that I was capable to handle this on my own. I had to do this to clear all those nasty little whispers from the umbra of my mind. Sometimes these whispers would take the form of my own inner voice, sometimes it would be a particularly bitter memory triggered by something as stupid as the school bell rigning or a commercial on the TV about this super duper amazing new and whatever else thing that you don't need but YOU HAVE TO HAVE RIGHT NOW.

Well, RIGHT NOW, things are a lot better than they used to be back when I first even concocted this crazy plan that landed me in the middle of nowhere, a place so unlikely to contain the likes of me that not even my ex – Spec Ops grandfather won't be able to find me here. Yet, I was still being as careful as I could be. As far as my neighbours could tell, I had a particularly traumatic break up with my boyfriend the result of which was my little Light of Lights, my baby darling little boy. I am still a little skittish and awkward even when in the best of moods and even casual flirting sets me off into varying depths of depression, self-loathing and the occasional vicious rage fits.

Perhaps some people could describe me as broken. Am I broken? I don't know. What I do know, however, was that Leo brought out the best of me, and then he carelessly ripped out all that leaving me with nothing but all my darkest thoughts and emotions. I've no idea how people figure out their state of brokenness. I know that it still hurts so much that my throat clogs up and I cant breathe and all I want to do is just crawl under my bed or into my closet, hide and wail through a pillow, muffling my voice. I've done that on occasion and while it makes me feel better it does not abate the fear that I will be found one day and then my baby boy will be out of my grasp.

All my life I've felt alone. Not so much lonely as alone. Even MJ, who I consider as close to me as a person could be without being your flesh and blood, and even then some. Well, even MJ couldn't abate that feeling of being alone, surrounded by strangers. She lives in London and I live – lived in Paris and while we did spend a lot of time together, whether visiting each other or via Skype or Viber, it still wasn't enough for me to feel the safety that someone had my back at all times. That insecurity has left me plagued my whole life by an ever growing sense of paranoia. As a result, in order to find some equilibrium to help me sleep at night, I worked relentlessly to catalogue my surroundings, to help myself better understand the rules and regulations behind everything and anything, cause and consequence, action and reaction. It was a fascinating study that continues to this day. I try to make sense of everything, even when sense could hardly be applied to anything.

While I was raised Catholic, I never really found myself connecting to religion. The most horrible part of it all was that this had been entirely my parents' fault. You see, when you are terrified of everything and anything, you quickly learn to look for signs of danger or deception. I know I am repeating myself somewhat but please bear with me. I bet you are all thinking what does this have to do with the Catholic church and my parents.

One of the first lessons I had learned about life was that everybody lies. My parents, for example, had me up really early, nice and clean, well dressed and adorable and off we were to our church and all that on a Sunday. A freaking Sunday! Apparently people went to church on Sunday. Whoda'thunk? Sarcasm aside, it was all nice and pretty and inspiring up until the point I noticed my father staring at his wristwatch and one of my mother's heeled feet bouncing lightly, rapidly, impatiently. Clearly all that piousness was bullcrap but they still insisted me to trudge on, with them, with that bullcrap on my shoulders and smile brightly and proudly at the surrounding pious society.

Religion wasn't bullcrap. In fact, I'd have you know, and I'd never say this out loud, mind you, that I admire people who actually have a genuine faith in God. Any God. I, myself, am too jaded, I think, to find the strenght to believe in something so wonderful and altruistic as the idea that there is a God. I just don't know. I might believe in God. Perhaps I am more inclined to believe that there truly is this greater consciousness out there that makes heads and tails out of the entropy that is living the living life. Perhaps there is a greater meaning to life that is yet to reveal itself to me. Right now the only thing I believe is that for every deed done, there is bound to be some sort of repercussion. Cause and Consequence. Action and Reaction. Sooner or later everything comes to full circle and I am waiting for that full circle to come up and bite me in the ass any day now.

Religion wasn't the bullcrap I was talking about. Bullcrap would be what my parents did. And what made it even more vile and ugly was that I had understood all of this at the tender age of six or so. At first I hadn't really understood what was going on. After all, we had just recently moved from Brooklyn, New York to Paris because my father got promoted. It took a while to learn French. Indeed, it wasn't a long while. After all, I excelled at sponging information and soon enough I had myself frowning distastefully at the preaching holy person up at the front. He was talking about love, peace and unity while just the other I had seen him arguing with this man... ugh. Just thinking about how people could be so stupid and idiotic at times has me all riled up and wanting to punch someone's teeth out. Long story short, people tended to ruin everything not just for themselves but for everybody else as well. And that is why my faith in humanity has always been quite the fragile thing, more often than not having myself lacking any actual faith for prolonged periods of time.

And then things happen and, boy, do they happen! It's the one thing that truly fascinates me about us, human beings. One moment we are at each other's throats, the next somebody is hit by a car and seemingly everyone rushes out help those in need. It's like an instinct, that desire to help the person next to you. Then again, it is also instinct to kill the person next to you. Well, not exactly kill. More like make sure the person next to you doesn't succeed or go above you. Laws of the Jungle and all that Jazz. Human beings are controversial and contradicting and since I am a member of that same species, it is just because of said human nature that I had found myself in this situation. How many people would just ditch everything, good and bad, to start over, to have a slate so clean that they aren't even themselves anymore? To disappear and to embrace this new You that you've concocted that's not really a new You but a better You that you strive to eventually achieve. Well, that is pretty much what I did. I may have wussed out like a little bitch, but even if anyone dared to call me a coward, well, there is only so much ache my heart could've taken.

I should probably share now that I have considered (and swiftly and consequently ruled out) suicide. I was a brilliant person, a genius, a prodigy! And I wasted my talent on meaningless, random things for most of my life because everything else seemed just so boring. It had been done before so why bother? I knew what the results would be and just thinking about how my life would tickle onward, just like everybody else's had be cringing from the boredom of it all. No. I was brilliant and my brilliance was meant for greatness! And I still stand by that statement, even though right now things on that side of my life are currently put on hiatus. I have a child to raise, an absolutely adorable little blond, hazel-eyed cherub. So far he seemed to have taken mostly after me, though he bore his father's lighter complexion and his absolutely stuning light hazel eyes. In the right light they seemed like a pair of twin suns – glowing, golden orbs of precious life and wonder. Just looking at them made my decision seem better and better by the day.

I have done a lot of things in my life. I was an absolute hellion as a child and I thrived on causing grief and mischief for any and all adult in the vicinity. In a way, I was challenging them, trying to show them that I was better or at least good enough to have their respect or at least their attention. As far as those desperate attempts to gain attention went, I've yet to see some good results come from them. Perhaps I am mad? Were it not the definition of crazy that of repeating the same thing and expecting different results? I must be at least a little mad. Or a lot. No sane person would do what I did and perhaps my it was the fact my plan was crazy enough that it worked. At least it is working for now.

Here I am, with a child to raise completely on my own, without any outside help in sight. Jasper has been both harder and easier for me that I believed it would be. For the most part. And here I am, teaching physics to a bunch of wild whelplings that the school staff tries to convice itself that they're children. Some of them show promise with the sciences, so there is that going for me. Right about now my baby boy is waiting for me at a day care center that was on my way to work. I couldn't wait to pick up my wee munchkin and shower him with kisses and cooing.

So, here I am, and not for the first time do I realize how, when you repeat the same lie over and over again, sooner or later it becomes truth. And that in itself was a truth of life.

Here I am, Felicity Dale, single mother, 25, bright young thing, just starting on her teaching career.

On the other hand, however... Here I am, Fiona Johnson, single mother, bright young thing, turning 17 in two weeks.

As these thoughts plague my mind, I take a short detour to pick up my sweetling from the day care center. It takes me about 5 more minutes before I arrive home. I am tired but having my little bundle of joy in my arms makes me genuinely happy.

So there you have it. A truth and the truth.


	2. Chapter 2

Teaching children about physics was not hard when I had such a good grasp of it to begin with. At least I thought so at the begining. It was hard just to get the kids to listen and by kids I mean high-schoolers who want nothing more than to get the hell out of this prison that is the High School environment. I don't blame them. Up until recent life-changing events, I was of the same mentality. Fact is, I had been taken for a trial period of two months or so, to see if I was capable of handling the job, I had to put all of my skills to the test just for crowd control alone. Wearing smart, no-nonsense clothing helped. I had a few sets of suits that I wore on the less hot days and it helped immensely for constructing my reputation of someone who took their job seriously.

For someone like me who was raised in Europe, American Education seemed to be lacking and my first month at school left me on the edge, barely constraining myself from crying in outrage at the unpreparedness of the children. But this was the system and all I could do was actually force the students to do homework and projects, hoping that at least some of what I was teaching them would stick for practical purposes. The students were less than thrilled and I had to rework my schedule several times after a few of said students complained to the principle that my class was too hard. Still, my fellow teachers were impressed by my assertive ways in teaching and once the two months of trial had passed I had a proper, secure job of making the lives of high schoolers hell.

For the first time in my life I had peers who appreciated and respected me and after that initial week or so where their attention actually had left me feeling bashful, I sort of got used to their positive attitude and I began taking my breaks with my colleagues, talking about things of life and other nonsense. I think that was a milestone for me. It was the moment I realized that I had actually succeeded at this being-an-adult thing and I was damn proud of myself. For a few days I had this shit eating grin that I couldn't remove from my face.

The important part, though, was that I had a job and I could pay all my taxes and bills with legally earned money and that made my precarious situation far more manageable. I felt more secure but there was this residue nervous energy that followed me around everywhere and I think it showed most of the time. For that purpose I always busied myself with this or that and even on my days off I spent most of my time either spending quality time with my son or tinkering with various knick-knacks around the house. I was just afraid to let go and relax. For a good reason too, I think. Sooner or later there was always a chance that this farce would blow up in my face and when that happened I wanted to be able to do the proper damage control. Being prepared for every eventuality was the only thing that helped me sleep at night. Well, that and also the fact that being a single mother in charge of everything, from chores, to work, to taking care of my child left me half-dead somewhere around 9 pm and I'd sleep like the dead through most of the night. Thank God or whatever deity is out there that I no longer had to breastfeed my sunshine in the middle of the night. So long dark circles and dry skin! Hello healthy dose of sleep! Of course, when I wake up the first thing I do is check up on him.

You'd think a selfish, lazy person such as myself would hardly be able to do all these things that I do on my own without breaking apart at some point and to an extent you are all right. However, parenthood, motherhood in particular, turns even the most terrible child-hating people into doting parents. At least that's what happened to me, all the way back from the day I found out I was pregnant. By the time my belly was big enough to cause constant back and neck aches, I knew everything about the development of the chld growing inside of me and even to this day I always measure and weigh my baby darling boy before his scheduled visit to his pediatrician just to make sure they got things right. The first few months I barely got any sleep. I had to ditch anything in order to make sure my baby was well fed and comfortable. Hell, I even ditched most of the bad habbits I had concerning food, which meant no more visits to places like K.O. Burger. Don't get me wrong, burgers were a great comfort food during my pregnancy but not having anyone to tell me no just drained at the appeal of eating junk food. So that's about it. No more junk food, soft drinks and anything containing conservants. My baby would get the premium super deluxe breast milk and for that to happen, I had to be a health nut. Before that I was mostly just a nut. Well, you get the idea.

Breastfeeding is easy enough, though I had to have the MILF nurse teach me how to do it properly. I was terrified that i was going to drop my precious child or squeeze too hard or something. Baby took to breastfeeding like a fish to water and I was proud of myself to have done something so natural and right and to have done it well. I don't think my mother breastfed me. I remember being told that she didn't have any breastmilk due to the stress of her university exams at the time. No matter. My baby grew purely on my breast milk up until seven months when, with the constant encouragement from my pediatrician, I finally began weaning him. He now intakes homemade baby food mixes. I try my best to follow the instructions as to how to prepare them and I usually make a batch at night, right before bed, for the next day. I also prepare a bottle of breast milk for when he stays at the day care center. It's a very smug me when you see me take my child and the other parents asking about the recipes for the baby food. Fun times all around at the parenthood wars. The only other woman that actually challenges my baby food formulas was this lady that actually grew her own vegetables for her baby's diet. Well, in my defense, I am single and she is not. Also, she is has a far less taxing work at her husband's restaurant while I have to deal with whelps. Heh. Whelps.

 _MANY WHELPS! HANDLE IT!_

Ahem.

Anyways. We actually made good friends. The woman's name is Sharona and her little baby girl here is actually her third. She doesn't leave her here as long as I do with my baby boy (had I the time, I'd spend my entire day with him, but bills have to be paid in a legit way). Sharona was an ok woman, a little overbearing and too mother-hen for my tastes but her practical experience with raising children was invaluable. She also lived on the same street as I did and it was she that initiated me into her little Desperate Housewife Clu- I mean into her circle of friends. They were pretty cool but all of them were middle aged. Turned out Jennifer (one of the Desperate Housewives) had a boy in one of my physics classes. After three hours of intense gossiping and cooing out the combined force of our little ones, she actually managed to convince me to raise her kid's physics grade a bit. Well, he deserves it for helping his Ma with his little sister.

I, myself, was never given the chance to show such responsibility, even though all of my friends, especially those with young ones already had told my parents that I made a brilliant babysitter. And I really did. But my parents simply did not want me to corrupt their younger child, my brother Fynn, with my deviant and hellish ways of a mischief maker and chaos bringer. I'd might sound a bit of a hypocrate, considering my past but do bear in mind that I've realized where my faults lie and while I am not so much changed as it appeared, I still have the responsibility to raise a boy properly into something worthy. Also I'd never allow myself to become like my parents. I've promised myself that very early on in my life and I hope that once summer vacation is here, I'd have the time to spend teaching my baby to walk and talk and to take as many pictures a possible of him.

Anyways, it is always good to integrate yourself with a bunch of gossiping Desperate Housewives. It's amazing the things you could learn from the vine in no time. Apparently one of my colleagues, this old fella Mr. Burns had a wife who had problems with drinking who died in a carcrash not too long ago while driving under the influense. Not too long ago translates into 10 years ago. Apparently she took the life of this guy whose wife was a nurse and leaving their then six year old half an orphan. Said boy, now sixteen, had straight A's in Mr. Burn's class. I actually had that boy in my class as well. He reminds me of my cousin Harry, all responsible, friendly and a diligent worker. He has good grades in my class, not so much for excelling with his comprehension of physics as much as for his dedication to his work. Not even half of the class show the amount of responsibility he does. So I encourage him, I guess. He needs the encouragement, in my opinion. When I said he reminded me of Harry, I wasn't kidding. Whenever I paired him up with someone he'd always help them out. There were days when I was feeling particularly devious and had him paired with Sierra just to watch him squirm. Its funny how it takes only about a month and a half to figure out what most of my students were about. The best part about being a teacher? I get to do what my own teachers did. I try not to let that power get to my head, but, let's be honest, who wouldn't have fun with that kind of power? I have at least two or three of my students squirm uncomfortable while pretending to be none the wiser. There's this jack ass in the class. Well, he really isnt a jack ass but his likeness to Leo has me battling my internal berserker instincts to not kill the poor ginger. He didn't really look that much like Leo. His facial structure was different, he had green eyes and his hair was this gingery orange color while Leo's was this rich dark red color. They did, however, dress similarly and both had this swagger going on for them. But that was about it. Vince was an idiot in comparison and Leopold was a self-righteous prick who thought knew better than anyone else but really didnt. Me being here on my own raising his child was proof enough.

But enough about my instictual hatred of Vincent. Who the hell names their kid Sierra? Seriously!

#

I think Mrs. Olivia is traumatized. As far as I'm concerned the new transfer had spunk but her ideas were far from original and what she lacked in insight she made up with spunk and creativity. So I don't know what to think of this Miko. She's Japanese but her English wasn't just passable but actually spot on. Her grades were all over the place, pointing to applying herself only where she was interested. She was a punk and she pissed me off for two reasons. First, Mrs. Olivia did not deserve the scare she got. She is a woman with a poor heart and I fear any day now that we'd be dealing with a heart attack or something. I've taken to taking my medbox from my car and into the teacher's room just in case. She was an elderly woman and it was always best to be prepared. And I was always prepared.

Second, while I myself was pretty much a punk in my own High School, I was more of a Moriarty (Leopold being my Holmes) while the little Priestess was a rockstar female version of Uncle Fester or something. She was a little monster through and through and the only reason I didn't spend too much time apprehending her was due to the fact I respected her individuality and what she was trying to do. Hey, I'd be a hypocrite otherwise, and that was one of the things that I drew the line for. It was not fun to have her for detentions, though. And being the youngest and most inexperienced member of the Teacher Staff, I was often saddled with dealing with her. And let me tell you, Miko is always being difficult, Perhaps I'd one day outgrow the annoyance I feel for her and help her better channel her talents. Right now, however, I was satisfied with having her not ruining my classroom everytime she enters it. It's a work in progress.

#

It was time for Lunch Break and I took my usual spot with the other Teachers of my clique. Well, it wasn't really a clique but when you go to an American High School you'd notice how people separate themselves in these groups. My own group was considered the Nerd group. Not that anyone would call it that out loud, but it was my label of things. We were a merry little band consisting of the science division – biology, physics, chemistry and math. Our two math teachers were actually brothers. The younger one, Steven, was a 38 year old, happily married and he used to be in the Military. Here's a thing I learned about America – if you go military, you get your life settled, in a way. Education, medical insurances. I don't know how it works exactly as I don't have use for that kind of information but I might look more into it eventually, assuming I'd be desperate enough at that point to help secure my Light of Light's education. It was a last ditch effort scenario that I'd probably never have to employ but I liked having options. I liked having choices.

But back to Steven. He used to be military and after his deployment had been over he got a degree in chemistry. He was very well build and slightly intimidating. I've seen the man without his lab coat and I liked what I saw. Too bad he was married. I'd still appreciate his physique at a distance though.

I think he used to be a sapper. I will grill him about it later, when his brother wasn't around.

Speaking of his brother, the 45 year old Math teacher, Mathew, was a small, scrawny man in comparison. I don't doubt there are some jealousy issues involved, since it's like watching that little shit Joeffrey sitting next to Khal Drogo, for example. But he was a smart man. While Steven was all abot practical application and experience, Mathew was all pure unadultarated wit and logic and he was also equipped with a very sharp tongue. He was also pleasant to look at, but my 175 cm to his 157 made it a bit awkward for me to appreciate him like that. He was also happily married with three wonderful boys. You already know the biology teacher, Mrs. Olivia. Becky Olivia was a sassy old woman. She wore tons of shiny baubles that were supposed to be jewelry and her perfume was overly strong and sweet. She was a dear, however. Unless you were a student. Then she was an outright hag. I try very hard to stay on her good side. She was best friends with the principle. The other math teacher was a practical middle aged woman who spent a lot of her time researching conspiracy theories. Ms. Barnaby was a tricky one and I'd rather tango with her later on, when I'd earn enough of her trust. She was a woman who also had an eye for discrepansies. I tried to keep my conversations with her to a minimum. And with good reason.

"Aha!" Ms. Barnaby exclaimed quietly as she went through the pages of a magazine.

I looked at the article that had her so excited. _Small Mining Operation Closed due to Radioactivity._

"That's Bullshit." I stated, earning a few glares from Mrs. Olivia, which I expertly ignored."Remember Lewis' report on the geological structures of the area?"

"Such a bright young fellow! His report was outstanding! No wonder he qualified for the next round-" Mrs. Olivia beamed at the mention of her prized pupil. Lewis had always been a teacher's pet. Tough luck he was one of those students I loved to see squirm. It was borderline harassment but he took it like a man. Respect. Seriously. That one'd have a bright futre.

"So why would the goverment claim radiation when there is nothing but coal there?" I asked for the benefit of my impromptu crowd.

"The goverment has its reasons" Steven remarked, Mathew nodding along in agreement."If they claimed it was something dangerous for the public, then why would we care otherwise?"

Meh, patriotism is strong with these ones.

"I just don't like when the goverment outright lies to the public." I merely stated and took a sip from my juice.

"This isn't the first one, either." Stated Mrs. Barnaby, suddenly looking all formal and official."Two months ago there was this illegal mine that got shut down in Colorado. However, there was nothing of worth in the area to mine."

"The plot thickens!" I declared in amusement and settled comfortably in my chair, giving a quick sweep of the students in the cafeteria.

Most of lunch time was spent in pleasant conversation, some gossiping and the traditional complaints from Miko's shenanigans. You'd think with the amount of students attending the school there'd be other people to complain from but Miko was the genuine article of terror among the teacher staff. Worst of all, she did all her detentions as diligently as possible in order to get home as soon as possible. As a result, it was getting harder and harder to get her under control and her host family was hard pressed at times when dealing with her.

I wonder about her parents back in Japan. As far as her file went, she was supposed to be an orderly, straight A student with a bright future ahead of her. The way things were going, it was as if I was staring at myself from times not so long past. I will get her working on a project in order to get her grades up in my class. Maybe a demonstration of practical physics? I'd have to run this by the principal. He was a real stickler to the rules and I doubt I'd manage any sort of field trips any time soon.

Lunch was over and we all went back to the teacher's room to prepare for our classes. I had three more hours of the daily grind to get through before spending an hour and a half with detentions and the extracurriculum stuff the previous physics teacher had left for me to take care of.

The Extracurriculum was fun. I had some of the brightest teen of the town goofing around and basking in the glory that was SCIENCE! And I had free reign to teach them more of that. Among them I had this shy little guy, who was younger than the rest. His name was Rafael and he was of Hispanic origin. He reminded me of Marco, a friend of mine from Spain, in the days before he met his wife Malena. I think you guys might notice a trend how the majority of my friends are older than me. Anyways, Rafael is very smart and he is also quite tech savvy. I'd see if I can apply him for a project or something but so far nothing inspiring was comming to mind.

Running the physics extracurriculum was like having your own little operation and your own little minions and I enjoyed it.

#

There are far too many dark purple caddilacs in Jasper. What's up with that? Now I want one too, but classy black, Those things look like a Batmobile. I want a Batmobile!

#

"So you have a little kid?"

"Yes."

"How old is he?"

"Nine Months old."

Miko was looking at a photo of my son and myself that she had dug out from somewhere in my desk. How, I've yet to find out, but I am keeping an eye on her. If the Japanese truly had ninja powers, I'd be on the look out for them. She's a master of distraction, but I invented that game years before she made her debut in Jasper. Tough luck missie, you are dealing with a grand master.

"So where's the dad? I only saw pics of you and the squirt."

Foot meet mouth.

I cringed a bit at her bluntness and then sighed. It wouldn't do to get angry at her for being her usual self.

"We are not together anymore."

"He's cute, though. Your baby."

I smiled warmly.

"That he is."

A pain in the ass Miko Nakadai was, but an honest one at least. She still had some forty five minutes of detention and no matter how tiresome this was, I wasn't letting her go even a second earlier.

#

I grabbed blindly at my phone, rubbing at my eyes with my other hand. I just had gotten to sleep too. My sunshine had been irritable all morning and then when I got him home it turned out he had a full blown tummy ache. And a powerful set of baby lungs. No matter, I had gotten him to sleep so whoever was calling me in the dead of night was bound for a verbal lashing. I cringed at the brightness of the screen and turned on the night lamp.

It was Martha Barnaby, the math teacher.

"It's three in the frigging morning, what is it?" I grumbled sleepily.

"I just got back from Colorado, you have no idea what I found! Let me in and I will show you!"

Ok, that got me to wake up. I got up and looked out the window and lo and behold, there she was in all of her geeky, lanky and bespectacled glory. She waved at me smiling excitedly.

She was so lucky it was a Saturday tomorrow. I opened the door and let her in. In five minutes time I had her sipping at some instant coffee I kept around for guests while I was supporting myself with some juice. This better be good. I need some sleep.

Without further ado, Martha handed me a small dark, almost black smokey crystal into my hand and I stared at it, trying to figure out what it was. It was warm to the touch and covered with soot. I was about to ask what it was when I dragged my thumb across its surface. Then I felt this ...something pass through my fingers and my eyes widened when I saw the slight glow the shard was giving off through the soot.

"What the hell!?"

"I found it at that mine in Colorado! There more from where this came from but I had to get away before I got caught. The goverment was pulling out some sort advanced machinery from the mine!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know!"

"This thing obviously countains some sort of energy and..."

Suddenly I dropped the crystal back into Martha's hands and pulled away. I quickly went into the kitched and washed my hands. What if that thing is radioactive!? I went into the Garage through the door that connected it and the kitchen and started shuffling through the various boxes I had at one side.

"What are you looking for?" Martha asked curiously as she followed me to the garage.

"I'm looking for my Geiger Counter." I answered without looking at her.

"You have a Geiger Counter?" she raised an eyebrow at me,

"Of course I do. I wanted to make one myself but it turned out it'd be far less time consuming to just buy a ready-made one than to look for a Geiger tube." After seeing the look Martha was giving me I sighed and explained myself further. " It was for a physics project the principle didn't approve of. Anyways, here it is,"

I handed it to her, at which she turned it around in her hands, looking at it curiously, Actually, the Geiger counter was supposed to be part of some Fallout themed gimmicks that I wanted to have along with me for a convention that was going in Vegas. I gave up on the idea after finally convincing myself it was not worth running the risk being seen by people who might recognize me. The majority of the friends I had were part of a cosplay club we used to run a while back. Those glory days were over, at least for me. The realization had hurt a lot.

My half-finished Pip Boy is still lying around here somewhere, in one of these boxes.

#

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"That's it?"

"It gives off heat, light and some sort of current. My fingers feel funny."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are we going to find out what that is?"

"We need to use the lab equipment at the school for that. Some basic sciency stuff experiments." I rubbed my eyes tiredly.

To be honest Martha Barnaby scared me. I mean, looking at her I imagined that'd be me by the time I was her age. Well,. I'd never let myself become quite like her, I mean, who'd want to be called a crazy cat lady that thrives of conspiracy theories, Pytagorean Theorems and sudoku? Ugh. It makes me feel uncomfortable thinking about how people around me would percieve me. Bad thoughts aside, Martha actually brought a very interesting and challenging crystal to my home. This thing is something I've never seen before and my mind irked to learn its secrets. It's been years since I had a proper scientific problem to solve. I felt as exhilirated as Martha at this point, even though I was tired as fuck. It'd be 6 am soon and I barely had any winks of sleep a little before Martha woke me up for this.

"So what do we call it?"

"We don't even know what it is.I mean, its a crystal. It could be any number of things. We don't even know what the crystal structure is... you get my point."

"The glow was very visible in the dark, though. Do you think we can borrow Steven's lab?"

"That was the plan, actually. I bet he'd be interested in working with us on this. I am no scrub at chemisrty, mind you, but I'd rather not work in his lab without him. He knows the properties and quality of his materials best."

#

It turned out that Steven had called in sick for the week. Bloody spring weather spread diseases faster than fire on oil.

#

"What is this?"

"You tell me."

"Did you- is this some kind of joke?" Steven was getting both more incredulous and more suspicious of some foulplay by the second.

He was carefully examining the crystal Martha had found. Its glow was barely visible in the well lit Chemistry lab room.

"We want to know what it is too." Martha said, adjusting her glasses.

Steven rubbed a thumb over the surface, fascinated by the small shard. It reacted to his touch, glowing slightly more in the areas where his thumb had passed for a second or two.

"She played around with the shard for hours like that." Martha supplied cheekily and I glared at her. Her attempts at humor were awkward at best.

"It glows."

"Yes."

"And it isn't radioactive! We checked! Felicity's got a Geiger Counter,"

I rolled my eyes. She was trying to impress Steven with MY stuff. Whatever.

"Seriously, you can buy that off of the internet, its not super expensive or anything."

"This...shard doesn't give off any radiation?"

"Nothing we can immediately detect at least. I've been running it by the Geiger Counter at regular intervals and still nothing. Whatever it is, though, it emits light and warmth. And also some sort of current."

"And you want to test it?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I don't think it would be safe to do this in the school lab."

"Well, we tried, Martha.. Let's -"

"I never said we aren't testing it."

"So... where do we do this?"

"There is a small warehouse not far from the school. It's considered school property and there is spare and obsolete equipment in there."

"I bet I can fix up some of that stuff and modify it for our purposes."

"You can fix machinery?"

I blushed slightly under the scrutiny. Sometimes I really get ahead of myself. Dammit.

"Uhm, a bit of this and a bit of that, I watched some online courses and stuff. I live on my own with my boy so I've got be prepared, you know?"

Well, that was true but it wasn't the whole truth. I was an expert at pulling apart and putting together computers and I'm very decent with a soldering machine. I have very steady hands and a delicate touch that I put to very good use on many, many occasions.

"We'll talk more about this later. I have a class in about 10 minutes and I need to prepare." Steven cringed slightly." I have to talk about acids and bases and their properties with that Nakadai Brat in the room."

"Godspeed, Steve," I patted him on the shoulder as he headed off.

"I still don't understand why most of the staff hates that cute Japanese girl."

"May you never have to deal with her, Martha. We don't hate her. We dread her. There is a difference."

#

"Ugh, my neck is killing me." I grumbled as I stretched and cracked my neck with some very satisfying pops comming out of it.

"My neck would hurt too if I had udders like yours." I was cheerfully informed by none other than the resident hellspawn, Miko Nakadai.

I snorted. She had no idea how right she was. In fact:

"I was just thinking the same thing, But hey, breast milk does that."

Miko stopped scrubbing the graffitti and gave me a look.

"Okay, they arent that much smaller before I got knocked up but they were more manageable."

"How do you sleep at night, Ms. Dale? I mean, if I had TNT that big I'd suffocate myself by accident."

"That's a nice way to go. Death by TNT. I bet you don't have to worry about that kind of problems, being Japanese and all, Ms. Nakadai."

She laughed out loud at that.

"Sweet burn, if a bit racist. Not bad."

"It ain't racist if it's basic biology, brat."

Science versus smart asses? Science wins every time.

I looked at my watch and then back at Miko. She still had a long way to go before she was ready. I had to go back home to pick up my baby boy from day care earlier and then I left him at Sharona, who gladly agree to keep watch over him till I got back. Right now it was well after midnight and the school gym wasn't looking any better.

"This isn't working."I mumbled, holding one of the bottles with cleaning solutions. The paint wasn't washing off and whatever Miko had scrubbed down... well, let's say she literally scrubbed it off the wall.

"What kind of paint did you even use? This thing is as tough as white hair. We'd be better off scraping off the top layers of the walls and then repainting the whole thing."

Technically this wouldn't cost Miko anything but her hard work. I knew for a fact that the school had left over paint in the warehouse two blocks down. It would be a few more days to a week before the gym would be usable again but this was better than havving the girl slave her life away scrubbing as hard as she is now.

It was pointless to get the supplies now. As stubborn and as hardy as Miko Nakadai was, she was currently practically asleep on her feet. The principle had already spoken with her host family that she'd probably spend the entire night cleaning up her latest prank, so that left me with the only viable option at the moment.

"Come on Ms. Nakadai, let's get you something to eat and then we'll catch some snoozes, There is nothing more we can do right now."

"But the principle said -"

"I'm taking you to my place kid. It's not like we can do anything more here tonight. Ugh. Seriously. If this here doesn't teach you something, I don't know what will." I shook my head sternly." Next time at least check what kind of pain you've gotten your hands on. If you haven't noticed, Ms. Nakadai, I'm always the one handling your detentions. I would've been spending this evening with my son if it weren't for your continued shenanigans."

I exhaled audibly after taking a deep long breath, trying to calm myself down. It wasn't right for me to be angry at her for things I did myself not too long ago. In fact, I think this is probably one of those cases where that bitch Karma put me exactly where I was supposed to be. A taste of my own medicine, indeed!

Miko had the decency to look properly chasticed for once. Oh great. Did I upset her?

"Come on, I'll get you something to eat and then I'll introduce you to my Sunshine, how's that?"

"Sweet!"

#


	3. Chapter 3

When I first found out I was pregnant, one of the things that really kept me going through all of this was the name game I had come up. The possibilities were endless and I wanted my son to have a cool, catchy name that also carried a powerful meaning that would sort of help him out in life. It was a family tradition, of sorts, even though I was probably no longer part of said family. Not really. But you could take the person out of the family but not the family out of the person. Or some such paraphrased shit like that.

There were tons of names to chose from, some related to important and powerful historical figures, while other names carried connotations from myths and legends. The name was also dependant on when exactly my child would be born, what with the numerological and astrological significance and all that.

Anyways. I had this list that summed up some of the best names I had come across. Among them were names such as Alexander. After Alexander the Great. It was a beautiful boy's name, popular and dignified, after one of the greatest conquerors in human history. From the A's I also had Anthony, after Mark Anthony, Allan, after Allan Rickman, Anders, after Anders from Dragon Age and a few others.

The B list was a bit short, It had on it Bartholomew, after Barry Allen, who was also known as The Flash. I had Bruce, after Bruce Banner AND Bruce Wayne. And, lastly, I had Bryce, after Bryce Cousland from Dragon Age.

Among other names I had ones such as Mark (again after Mark Anthony), I had Garrus (after Garrus Vakarian, bless his fictional soul), I had James ( after a number of Jameses that I know, both fictional and real, all of which were awesome people).

In the end, however, my baby boy was born on the 17th of July and he got the honors of having two first names, for the sheer fact I couldn't make up my mind about which one I liked the best. Also, both names belonged to a great fictional character. So, on the 17th of July I had given birth to my son, Sirius Orion Dale. In hindsight, perhaps I should've taken up the last name Black instead of Dale. Too late for that now, I think.

Remus and Regulus were also on the list.

In lieu of this exposition to my baby's name, it was impossible to not sympathise with my situation. I mean, my poor baby Orion was reduced to Oreo. I think my self-esteem is in shambles, thanks to a 15 year old whelp.

#

"Oreo, Oreo, Ori, Ori, Oreo" Miko chanted in a sing song voice to my son.

I cringed from the horrible butchering of my Light of Light's name. He was soon to start talking and while having another talkative person around him to help him develop his vocabulary was a good thing, having Miko Nakadai of all people being that person was definitely NOT a good thing. I mean, what if my baby believes his name is OREO of all things!?

I'm mortified.

My baby is giggling in Miko's arms while I prepare breakfast. We came home really late last night. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so the plan right now was to have a hearty breakfast and for me to drop off Ori – dammit, Orion – to Sharona's again and then head off to the School's gym. We had tons of work to do.

What? I know it's Miko's detention but I am not about to leave her figure out on her own how to fix all of this. It was a cruel detention in the first place. Unlike myself, Miko was fragile looking and thin. I had muscle mass on me, hell I generally had mass on me that I still couldn't completely get rid of after giving birth to Ori. Dammit! Orion! It wasn't like looking like a photo model was a goal of upmost importance to me. I had this belly thing going on that annoyed me for the most part, but otherwise I was ok with myself, I think. I had too much to do at the moment to focus on my weight.

Anyways, I had experience with repainting rooms and I knew a thing or two about how to do that on my own, having had gone through similar escapades to Miko's only in my case I didn't write graffitti all over the school gym and I didn't do it on purpose but rather it was an accident. Long story short, I was making tomato sauce and forgot to put the lid on the damn blender.

I wasn't looking forward to losing my weekend on Miko, but someone had to make sure she owned up to her shenanigans and that she was ok. And Miko may be annoying most of the times, but she was just like me, insecure and scared and God only knows what else. I wanted to show her that she wasn't alone and that all she had to do was reach out and I'd take her hand. And all of that on her own terms. I didn't want to pressure her or corner her. She needed this freedom as much as I had needed mine.

#

I ended up paying for the additional supplies we needed. It was not pleasant feeling a bit ripped off about it. I hoped that my investment in this bratty girl would pay off. I'd hate to see so much potential go down the drain. People like her and I, we have this spark inside us, you see. I've labeled it the Spark of Ingenuity. People like us could be the Promethei of Tomorrow, holding out the Torch of Enlightment – Ok.I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe. has got the spunk. She's got the drive. But she doesn't have the direction and, by God, is she still in that awkward phase where you don't know what exactly to do with yourself and the world is just too damn big for you to handle.

I remember that feeling. In fact, I still feel like that. Sometimes I think that I've cheated this time a wee bit too much. I literally jumped from that awkward phase straight into the orderly life of an adult with a well paying, orderly job. And suddenly the world felt too small. And it was lonely. It was lacking. There had to be more to the world than just this! Well, there was more to the world. But now I managed to limit myself to what I have at this point in time. And, later on, when Orion is old enough to take the big steps on his own, what will I be left with? Will I have the willpower to continue where I left off or will I just let go and enjoy the rest of my life in a reasonably comfortable boredom?

Questions like these haunted me all the time and I feel as if recently they've been pulling a wee bit too hard on me. I feel insecure about the future. It's smokey, like the smoke left behind a match when you snuff out the flame. Beyond that smoke, I see darkness. And in that darkness lay the promises of nothing. But there is also darkness in me and it says otherwise.

I chip away at the ruined coat of Graffitti'd paint with renewed gusto. For now I will bide my time and settle into this life that I've created for myself. There will be a time when I will have to raise my fist but that time is not now. And suddenly, just like that, I feel a bit better.

Time tick-ticks away. But with it, so do my fears.

#

I need to get a dog. Like, this big ass pooch that can and will rip apart interlopers of all kinds. Including Martha Barnaby. Especially Martha Barnaby. I found her drinking coffee when I got home with my baby boy on my hip, late Sunday afternoon. Glasses or no glasses, she's lucky I hadn't punched her in the face then and there.

#

Turns out I had forgotten the keys on my door when I went out in the morning. Perhaps Martha isn't as bad as I'd think her to be. Hey, I may be quirky, but I'd never be as lame quirky as Martha Barnaby. We talked about the shard for a little while and she headed out. Believe it or not, she was having a date. She said something about pampering herself but even with my usually perceptive eyes, I could not see a difference for the life of me. Maybe she wiped her glasses? Aunt Petunia has more sense of style and beauty that her. Not that I'd ever say it to her face. She's sorta nice, although in a very awkward and annoying way.

#

This monday I had to do an introduction course to Thermodynamics to the class. So, naturally, the class was bored out of their minds while I tried my best not to be bored with them. Hey, Thermodynamics are fun only when applied, not when they were written on the bloody whiteboard. I opened up one of the green markers and discreetly checked its label. Good. It aint one of those permanent ones. Miko's really been working on her shenanigans. I need to get that girl a hobby. Usually I am not against pranks but I need my family time and, since I am the newbie Teacher, I get all the scrub over-time work. It sucks.

Since it was a Monday, my mood was already on the low side, considering the only rest I got on the weekend was actually some sleep. The majority of my class was also half asleep, which left my lecture feel even more boring than usual. Hell, even that Darby kid, the one I told you about, whose father got killed by that Mr. Burns teacher? Even Jack was distracted. I decided to call him out on his uncharacteristic behavior.

"Eyes up front, Mr. Darby." I ordered and he kind of got startled but his eyes were on me and my lecture again. He looked decidedly chasticed.

I was satisfied at first, but then he continued to be distracted throughout the whole lecture I was giving. I didn't bother correcting his behavior again. I wanted to know what was bothering him. As the school bell rang and the students piled out. The entire time he stole glances through the window. As the last student piled out I moved to Darby's now vacant spot and looked out the window as well. There was nothing out of the ordinary, at least at a first glance. Well, that's one mistery that won't solve itself. I pursed my lips, displeased with the mundane turn of events and set off to the teacher's room. I guess if Darby continued to act like that, then there was something and time would show what that something was. Still, there was this gut feeling of mine that had me really irritated. It was one of those things that told you something was really, really amiss but you just couldn't grasp what. My paranoia was going highwire by the time I sat down on my chair with a nice hot cup of tea. I would keep an eye on him, there was nothing more I could do. And that was that.

#

"Okay, I have good news and bad news." I told Steven and Martha as I stood up."Should I start with the good news or the bad news?"

Steven and Martha shared a look.

"Fine, be that way." I huffed dramatically." The good news is we will have a working

vacuum chamber. The bad news is I have to use the parts of all three broken ones to make a single working one. Also, why the hell does an ordinary high school in the middle of nowhere have a blast furnace?"

#

Sometimes when you ask weird questions you actually get answers. Even if said answers also happen to be weird. But thats only an occasional occurence. The Blast Furnace was a prototype for a State School Science Fair from 1976. It was all solid worksmanship down to the last bolt. It was miniature compared to what blast furnaces should be in this day and age, but that did not mean it was not functional. I eyed it appreciatively. Now I want one, I'd probably annex it for a school project or something and then "forget" to return it. This baby was too good a find to be left alone like this.

#

Finally, our little research was going smoothly. On Tuesday we discovered that when applying pressure to the strange crystal shard, it glowed. Upon further experimentation, we concluded that the intensity of the glow corresponded to the force with which the surface of the shard was pressed. After much goofing around, on Wednesday, we found out that the shard was photosensitive. By the end of the week we did pretty much every test we could think of in our little impromptu DIY lab. The only thing we hadn't tested the shard with, was actual radiation. You know, the alpha, beta and gamma and the like?

We came up with a solution on how to test at least some radiation on the shard. Well, I came up with the idea but we are a team and I prefer to refer to any discovery as a such made my the team, not by a single person. It was a pretty good and practical idea. So I just contacted the local hospital and arranged some use of their radiography machine (that's the machine that makes X-rays). The results were as predicted. Yet again the shard had soaked up the X-rays thus producing perhaps the most intense light we've seen from it to date.

By the start of the next week we sort of had this small report on all the experiments we did on the shard. We kept it inside a small lead box I ordered off the internet in case it exploded from overexposure. We were almost ready to present our findings for a scientific conference in Seattle in three months from now. We were hoping that we'd get some funding for further studying the shard.

That friday I had another exceptionally long detention with the Nakadai girl. I treated her to pizza and popcorn and Gladiator starring Russel Crow. I always watched Gladiator on Fridays whenever I had the time. Sometimes I watched 300 or some other Ancient themed movie with lots of honorable warriors in it. But it was mostly Gladiator. There was something nostalgic about rewatching it and having Miko here with me, it was almost as if the good old days were back. I miss my friends.

The pizza was extra large, meat lover special. That was some next level shit right there. I should order take out more often, it really saves me time from cooking at dinner, time that I could spend with my little Ori- dammit! Orion!

#

"I've always wondered. You don't seem like teacher material-"

"Oh?" I made an overly exagerated face at which Steven laughed.

"Not that you aren't good at what you do. You are the friggin Warden, after all."

I nearly jolted when he called me a Warden. For some reason I thought he was talking about Dragon Age's Grey wardens. I used to be an avid gamer and, well, my paranoia sort of tried getting the better of me. Instead of panicking, I took a slow, deep breath and calmly turned to him.

"That's a new one. Since when have I become this... Warden?"

"Since you started handling the Nakadai Brat on a regular basis."

I promptly gave him the stink eye.

"That's because you people assign me to her all the time. Seriously. I have a young baby boy and I need to spend some time with him before he grows up."

Steven raised his hands in mock defense, with a smile on his face that made me skip a beat. He was truly a handsome man. He was tall and well toned and he carried himself with a certain air, a strong presence. Probably something from his military days. True, he was old enough to be my father and married to boot, but right now that was as far away from my still highly hormonal and teenage mind.

I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow, further continuing this camaderie that was going on between us.

I'd be brutally honest, folks. If he decided in this very moment to lift my skirt, rip my panties off and fuck me, I wouldn't mind. Not one bit. And damn it all into Oblivion, despite everything that I made myself believe, not needing the comfort of having a man in my life was not one of them.

"You wanted to ask me something, Steve." I pointedly told him, forcing myself to ignore my thoughts.

"I just don't get it how a young bright thing like yourself is simply a teacher."

I took a breath to answer. But he raised a hand and continued talking.

"I don't mean it that it's a bad thing, but I don't see you as the calm, domestic type. You'd look more at home in some big secret science facility or aboard a NASA Space Ship, leading a mission to Mars. You strike me as one for adventure."

In the end I just chuckled and shook my head. His words kind of haunted me the whole day, even through happened in the afternoon. Maybe especially because of that. He was right of course. I was looking for that life-changing adventure. There was this longing in me that still grieved for those bygone days of fun and excitement that now I associated with what was supposed to be my rather short-lived childhood.

#

Miko was late for her detention. By five whole minutes. That girl knows my policy. If you are late by any amount of time, then you stay additionally for that amount of time. Thus, she tries not to be late. Every second counts.

I looked out the window. Miko was leaving the school grounds.

"That little bitch." I hissed out angrily and pursed my lips. I abruptly got up and ran after her. If I am not allowed to get out of this detention then neither is she! She is getting an earful now, that's for certain. And maybe diaper changing duty if I am feeling particularly petty and vindictive. She's getting more efficient and better and changing diapers, though, so I don't think that threat would hold out for much longer.

"Miko Nakadai, if you think you can just skip off and-"

"Dude! Just go with!"


End file.
